New Mexico, 1948
The massive chrome grill of the Cadillac gleamed for a short moment in the bright sunlight as the heavy limousine rolled past the armed MP guards.
Other than the armed guards there was a small guard house, a high razor wire topped chain link fence and a number of big signs telling anyone that might come by here that this was a government installation and trespassing carried the danger of being shot on sight. Not that there would be many to read these signs, out here in the middle of proverbial nowhere.
The big black Cadillac dulled with the dust of a long drive over unpaved desert roads, came to a grinding stop on the loose gravel before a single corrugated steel storage building. It was as far as anyone could see the only construct within the fenced off area.
The building looked like any other metal warehouse, basically a big half pipe closed on each side. There was a big roll gate and a smaller door on this side. The driver got out and opened the rear door and saluted as the man sitting in the back got out, nodded to the driver and went to the building’s door. It was opened before he reached it and a man in white coat and a General greeted the arriving man.
The General smiled.”Glad to have you here Mr. Dulles.”
“Let’s cut the pleasantries until we are inside. I am in dire need of a drink.”
The men went inside. Most of the interior was occupied by stacks of crates and boxes and olive green painted fork lift. The three men went to a small office. A cheap desk, two wooden chairs and a steel file cabinet was all the furniture.
But as soon as the man in the General’s uniform closed the door, the floor sank with a humming sound and it became apparent this was a camouflaged elevator platform. The platform kept on descending as the Admiral said.”You might as well sit down, Sir. The descent is taking over 20 minutes.”
Dulles did sit down on one of the wooden chairs. ”Is he already here?”
“Yes Sir, the president is here and has been briefed.”
“Would you mind briefing me as well? I know precious little what this is all about.”
It was the man in the white coat who spoke. ”I was under the impression you are fully aware of Project Armadillo.”
“I am aware of it and I know it is the most secretive and most highly classified project in our nation’s history, I know it has to do with the Incident in Roswell and what Byrd had found in the Antarctic, but I this is about the extent of it.”
The Admiral nodded towards the white coated man.” You might as well tell him now Dr. Smith. Maybe it will lessen the shock.”
Before the scientist could speak Dulles took of his glasses and pulled a kerchief to clean them.”I assume it wasn’t a weather balloon after all, that came down in Roswell.”
“No Sir, it wasn’t. “
“Russian?”
“No Sir, it has not anything to do with the Russians or any other nation on Earth.”
“You mean it really is from Outer Space?”
“Indeed Sir.”
The platform slowed down and stopped. Two soldiers with MP sleeve bands and armed with rifles awaited them and led them down a corridor carved out of rock and through a door into a conference room. About twenty other men and women already there, among them the President himself, he greeted his secretary of state a friend briefly and motioned him to take a seat next to him, then said to the Scientist.” We are complete Dr. Smith. You might as well get started right away!”
A pretty looking woman served Coffee and drinks while some started to smoke.
Dr. Smith placed himself before the U shaped conference table.”Mr. President and everyone else present, I am Dr. John Smith. This is not my real name and this is not my real face. For security reasons it was decided that this is important. Unlike any of you I was not born on this planet you call Earth. I am not human.”
He turned and pressed a button at the desk next to him. The wall with the black board behind him lowered into the floor and through what looked like a thick glass window everyone could see six transparent cylinders filled with a watery liquid and in each of the cylinders was an about human sized being with a large head, two arms, legs and large heads with huge black eyes, almost non existing noses and small mouth openings. Somehow human but at the same time totally alien and everyone in the room instantly knew these were not life forms from this planet. There was a shocked silence, and then some fearful sounding murmurs. One of the uniformed officers actually forgot the cigarette between his fingers and only was reminded of it as the glowing tip reached his skin and he yelped. “Damn! What are those?”
Dr. Smith said.” These are Ferons, members of an advanced galactic space faring species. These six bodies represent the crew of the craft that has been shot down over New Mexico almost exactly a year ago. There was a seventh but we dissected it for scientific purposes.”
The same Officer wearing an Air Force Uniform and a General star said.”And you are one of them?”
“No Sir. I am not, I am a Pan Saran and I have been stranded on Earth for more than 30 years now, after my escape module crashed on your world.”
“And what is your business here?”
The President got up.” Ladies and Gentleman, I personally vouch for Dr. Smith. He works for us for a long time and his participation in the Manhattan Project was a deciding factor in its success. I summoned you all here not to cross examine Dr. Smith but to assist me in forming a new Secret Agency, one that is unlike any other, it must remain more secret than anything else. It must be funded differently, hidden differently and operate outside any and all existing restrictions. Any questions and problems will be dealt with a strict policy of denial and ridicule.”
The president made a motion that included all present. “You have been carefully selected to form this secret society, and you are the keepers of these secrets.”
A woman said.” I am honored to be chosen and I most certainly will keep these secrets, but why are we to keep this secret? Would the public not have the right to know?”
The president nodded to Smith. ”Why don’t you explain to them why this must be kept secret?”
The alien scientist acknowledged and said. ”There are many reasons of course ranging from public unrest to religious problems. Paramount reason however is to keep other Extra terrestrials unaware of this planet and of our knowledge. As you know now, there are the Ferons and the Pan Sarans, but there are many more out there.”
He pointed upward. ”Hundreds of different species and cultures, each with their own agenda and motivations, some of them are peaceful and seek peaceful coexistence; others are as aggressive and expansionistic as can be. There are species out there considering primitive cultures like yours as perfect source for food or slaves. All of them are technologically much more advanced as you are at this stage of development and you would stand no chance against them.
What good are your best troops, airplanes and ships against an enemy that can bombard the entire surface of this world from space? What are 4 Billion humans against empires with hundreds of worlds each holding ten times as much?” He paused; he saw his words made quite an impact on his listeners. Then he continued. ”Luckily for us,planet Earth is somewhat distant from any of the main traffic routes, but not too far from the Freon Hegemony and well within the Xunx Reach. The longer we can keep this planet out of galactic interests the better chance we have to develop the necessary technology to defend this world and one day ascent and take our rightful place among all the other species in the Universe. “So to answer your question, we don’t know if there are other agents of other alien species are already among you. As long as they do not know we know, they feel safe. It allows this new formed Organization to hunt them down, detain or destroy them and learn of their plans. Maybe there aren’t any others but the evidence before you confirms that at least two alien species already came to this world, to assume there might be others is not farfetched.”
The woman crushed her cigarette. ”This makes sense. You say you are an Alien yourself and yet you say we. Are you not an agent of your species first and foremost?”
“I have no allegiance to the Pan Saran Empire. I am married to an earth woman and have Children on this planet. I will gladly die and sacrifice anything I have to defend this world even if I was asked to fight Pan Saran.”
The President spoke again.” I say it once more; Dr. Smith is beyond approach and can be trusted, as much as I trust everyone else in this room. I want you all to make this Secret Society a reality and put every possible safeguard in place. You are the twenty most powerful and influential persons in our nation and most of you have been guarding secrets for a very long time for our nation, who better to guard this the most important of all humanity?”
